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UN Urges Cooperation To Fight Human Trafficking
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UN Gathering Urges Global Cooperation To Fight Human Trafficking

With human trafficking knowing no borders, anti-trafficking experts from regional and sub-regional organizations have met for the first time in a United Nations-backed forum to discuss how to join forces to counter the scourge.

“Effective coordination of the various anti-trafficking initiatives and enhanced cooperation among all actors involved in combating trafficking is essential to maximize available resources, minimize duplication and address States’ fatigue vis-à-vis the number of demands they are required to attend to,” "http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=10420&LangID=E"said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.







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She led the two-day gathering in Dakar, Senegal, which wrapped up on Tuesday and drew experts from around the world to confer on how to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and frameworks set up to address the problem in all regions.

“Assistance to and protection of victims must be non-conditional, responsive to the needs, and respectful of the human rights of trafficked victims,” the Rapporteur stressed, calling for regional and sub-regional groups to ensure that their policies are appropriate to victims’ ages and sensitive to gender aspects.

She highlighted the unique position that regional mechanisms are in to combat what she called a “modern day slavery, growing in scale and in terms of human rights repercussions” due to their expertise and knowledge of local realities.

Presenting her annual
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Ancident More Nato trucks burnt in Pakistan

More Nato trucks burnt in Pakistan
At least eight trucks are set on fire and one driver killed in the Pakistani city of Quetta, police officials say

Armed men in Pakistan have burned up to eight tankers carrying fuel for Nato forces in Afghanistan, killing a lorry driver, according to Pakistani police.

Shah Nawaz Khan, a police official, said on Wednesday that the attack, the latest on supply convoys since Pakistan closed a key border crossing to Nato forces last week, occurred in the parking lot of a roadside hotel on the outskirts of the southwest city of Quetta.

The attacks have raised tensions already elevated by Pakistan's decision to close the Torkham crossing in an apparent protest against alleged Nato helicopter strikes on its territory. One of those strikes killed three Pakistani soldiers.

The torched tankers are believed to have been on their way for a smaller border crossing that remains open.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/10/20101063176915658.html

Enjoy More aid to give shelterless Pakistanis some relief

We are saw this More aid to give shelterless Pakistanis some relief


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - More tents and plastic sheets have been secured to help 4.6 million shelterless Pakistanis, a U.N. spokesman said on Saturday, easing pressure on aid workers hoping to stop diseases spreading in the country's flood crisis.


Family members sit on a truck while fleeing from floodwaters in Shahdadkot, some 105 kilometers (65 miles) from Sukkur, in Pakistan's Sindh province August 21, 2010. (REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)
Waters began raging through an area of Pakistan about the size of England some three weeks ago, ravaging crops, washing away villages, destroying roads and bridges and leaving millions homeless and penniless.

The crisis has also raised concerns about the stability of a government rendered even more unpopular by its slow response to the disaster in a country seen as strategic for the region and which is fighting a battle with Taliban insurgents.

U.N. humanitarian operations spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said tents and plastic sheets had been delivered to one million people and now more were on the way for another 2.4 million.

"The good news is that we have been able to double the amount of tents and plastic sheets that are in the pipeline that are coming in," Giuliano told Reuters.

Half a million people are living in about 5,000 schools, said Giuliano, where poor hygiene and sanitation, along with cramped quarters and the stifling heat, provide fertile ground for potentially fatal diseases such as cholera.

Isolated rains are expected in parts of central Punjab, southern Sindh and northwestern Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa provinces in the next 24 hours, officials said.

There are already over 38,000 cases of acute diarrhoea and at least one case of cholera has been confirmed. A major disease breakout would cause another crisis and impose new demands on already stretched humanitarian workers.

The official death toll is around 1,500 but the true number of people killed in the disaster may turn out to be higher, with large areas of the country still inaccessible, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday. [nN20143960]

Islamist charities have moved swiftly to fill the vacuum left by a government overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and struggling to reach millions of people in dire need of shelter, food and drinking water.

NATO said on Friday it would provide ships and aircraft to transport aid to Pakistan, a day after Islamabad warned that militants were trying to exploit the disaster.

ECONOMY HARD HIT

The United Nations has issued an appeal for $459 million of aid to help Pakistan, of which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said about 60 percent had been pledged.

The EU foreign affairs chief will also urge countries next month to support trade breaks for Pakistan as worries grow about the impact of the floods on the stability of a nation fighting its own battle against Islamists.

A statement from the NATO Western military alliance, which is battling Islamist militants in Pakistan's neighbour Afghanistan, said a NATO aircraft would fly in power generators, water pumps and tents donated by Slovakia on Sunday.
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Pakistan braced for more flooding

Enjoy Pakistan braced for more flooding

Flood victims cross a flooded road at Karamdad Qureshi village in Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province. Photograph: Reuters/Asim Tanveer
Floods are threatening to wreak havoc in more areas of south Pakistan in a catastrophe that has made the government more unpopular and may help Islamist militants gain supporters.

Pakistan's worst floods in decades have toppled villages and bridges, ripped apart roads, killed at least 1,600 people, made more than four million homeless and raised concerns that militants will exploit the misery and chaos.

Saleh Farooqui, director general of the disaster management authority in southern Sindh province, said floods have hit at least four districts, including urban areas, forcing about 200,000 people to flee for higher ground in the last 24 hours.

"The south part of Sindh is our focus. We have diverted our resources for rescue operations towards that area," he said.

Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea, state news agency APP reported.

But when that happens, millions of Pakistanis will almost certainly want the government, which was already constrained by a fragile economy before the flood, to quickly come up with homes and compensation for the loss of livestock and crops.

The government has been accused of moving too slowly and Islamist charities, some with suspected links to militant groups, have moved rapidly to provide relief to Pakistanis, already frustrated with their leaders' track record on the economy, security, poverty and by chronic power shortages.

Pakistan has said it would freeze some development projects in order to divert resources to flood relief and reconstruction.

But if plans to spend on infrastructure, schools, factories and security forces in former Taliban insurgent strongholds, such as those in the northwest, are scrapped, that could set back government efforts to win public support.

The flood has been spreading through the rice-growing belt in the north of Sindh district by district, breaking through or flowing over embankments. People have also cut through dikes and roads hoping to divert the water away from their homes.

Half a million people are living in about 5,000 schools in flood-hit areas of Pakistan where poor hygiene and sanitation, along with cramped quarters and the stifling heat, provide fertile ground for potentially fatal diseases such as cholera.

The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children could be in danger of contracting deadly diseases carried through contaminated water and insects.

Militants have proven resilient despite a series of army offensives the government said hurt them.

The United States, eager to ensure stability in a frontline state in the fight against militancy, has led a chorus of aid pledges and provided helicopters for rescue operations.

The EU will also urge countries next month to support trade breaks for Pakistan as worries grow about the impact of the floods on the stability of the country.

The International Monetary Fund said it would review Pakistan's budget and economic prospects in light of the disaster in talks with government officials on Monday.

The meetings in Washington will focus on a $10 billion IMF programme agreed in 2008, and the budget and macroeconomic prospects will be reviewed because of the magnitude of the flood disaster, officials said.

Flood damage to agriculture is widespread, raising the possibility of long-term damage to a pillar of the economy.
coppie by http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0822/breaking1.html

Watch Flooding submerges new towns in Pakistan's south

Enjoy Flooding submerges new towns in Pakistan's south

By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press Writer – Sat Aug 21, 12:47 pm ET
SUKKUR, Pakistan – About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south, a government spokesman said Saturday.
Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea. Survivors may find little left when they return home, however: The waters have washed away houses, roads, bridges and crops vital to livelihoods.
Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh province during the flooding over the past month.
As the latest surge approached, "We evacuated more than 150,000 people from interior parts of Sindh in the past 24 hours," said Jamil Soomro, a spokesman for the provincial government. The floods submerged new areas in Thatta district.
At a relief camp in the Sukkur area, some victims said it was difficult to get the food dropped off by relief trucks.
"I am a widow, and my children are too young to get food because of the chaos and rush," said Parveen Roshan. "How can weak women win a fight with men to get food?"
Nearby, a doctor treated a boy whose back was injured after someone pushed him during a scramble for food at a truck.
The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan's territory, straining its civilian government as it also struggles against al-Qaida and Taliban violence. At least 6 million people have been made homeless and 20 million affected overall. The economic cost is expected to run into billions of dollars.
The United Nations has appealed for $460 million in emergency assistance, and the U.S. has promised $150 million. Pakistan said it would even accept $5 million in aid from India, its archrival.
The floods began in late July in the northwest of the country after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains, expanding rivers that have since swamped eastern Punjab province and Sindh province in the south.
A slew of aid groups have been trying to help the government in its relief effort by providing food, medicine, shelter and other crucial assistance. Poor weather and the destruction of roads and bridges have hindered the distribution.
The United Nations said it needs at least 40 more helicopters to reach the large number of people cut off by the flooding.
"We need more of these lifesavers," said the World Food Program's Pakistan country director, Wolfgang Herbinger.